There are a number of different topics that could fall under the heading of weird building practices; particularly certain building practices that have started to come into play in the United States, but first I have something strange to relate about a certain tower complex in Minneapolis.

It is called "River Towers Condominiums" and it is situated in the North of the heart of downtown Minneapolis. It has some curious qualities to it. Let's look at them.

Oddity 1. You can barely see it from this muddy pieced-together perspective of Google, but in the center of the blue circle I've made is a short black vertical line. This is the profile of a "2001 Spade Odyssey"-like monolith with a cheesy clock face on it. These towers happen to have been renovated in the 1970's to resemble the condos they are today. But it's not clear when the monolith made an appearance. What is with brother towers and the monolith being together? The World Trade Center in New York had its Millenium Hotel designed after the "2001" monolith. So these mini towers (one is only a dozen stories or so) have theirs. Why?

Oddity 2. I have used a yellow circle to indicate where there is a lone office in this building, apparently used as commercial space, in which a large (ugly, gaudy) painting of a firefighter holding a child or doll faces into the courtyard. It is not visible from street level; only by the mostly wealthy residents in the courtyard. It also says, as if the point were not driven home enough, in large letters something like "Never Forget". Why does this tiny office have a single painting advertising 9/11 and almost nothing else?

Oddity 3. I have used a red circle to indicate something only Google seems to identify in this location. Despite the fact that the towers do not have a heliport or any other apparent means of landing anywhere near the towers, Google insists that the longer tower is the location of a little airport called "Flying Cloud." The trouble is Flying Cloud Airport is really located in Eden Prairie, one of the notoriously spooky suburbs of the Twin Cities, and handles corporate jets and private airliners. Why does Google say Flying Cloud Airport is located inside a tower? Is this a joke?

Oddity 4. Note the very Federal situation of the River Towers. To the North, we have the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Not actually Federal, except in name -- it is a private corporation that holds the monetary imagination of the U.S.A. To the East-Northeast is the largest post office in the Twin Cities. Feds and spooks are all over this area (not counting hapless government employees who are just trying to do their job of course.)

Oddity 5. There just happens to be a small Internet company called @Webs911 (http://webs911.com/) located in a nearby tower. What could be the meaning of Google pointing out this pathetic, privately held entrepreneurship with locations in both Atlanta, Georgia and an otherwise random condominium in Minneapolis?

This seemingly innocuous city corner is filled with the patterns and signatures of 9/11. What gives? Was New York not the only place where the potential for an attack was considered? A mile away, to the East (other side of town) was the 35W bridge collapse, where there is now a cheesy monument to the apparent 13 who died with the destruction of the bridge (this event was used to justify the expansion of the highway that was already taking place anyway. Hmm).

Before the 35W collapse, the nearby Guthrie playhouse theater (where the monument now sits) finished their new building with a sculpture/extension on the second and third floors, which is called "the endless bridge" and is a suspended platform overlooking the river. It seems my hometown has this 9/11-ish hoaxy virus in its government and business practices. Eerie.